Find your way to Winston-Salem, NC and have the beer that you have been following on social networks. Small Batch Beer Co. uses ioBridge Technology to tell their patrons how much beer is left in their tanks at their brewery. Small Batch specializes in making limited quantities of beer one barrel at a time and they rotate what they are brewing. Their loyal fans want to know how much is available and when to see if they are going to stop by for beer.

The team from Small Batch partnered with ioBridge and the marketing team at Mullen to create an interactive website, social feeds, and mobile apps to make beer social. “The technology behind the project was the easy part. Creating strong connections with people and what they love is the real value of the project,” said Jason Winters, Project Lead. “Beer is social.”

The technology behind the project uses an ioBridge Gamma Web Gateway and an Omega Continuous Level Reed Switch. The Gamma Gateway connects to the ioBridge Cloud and turns all of the raw tank level data into easily accessible data for web pages and applications via ioBridge’s API. And behind the scenes, Small Batch is able to set alerts, track environmental data, build dashboards for their suppliers, and control operations to optimize brewing conditions.

We all have been hearing about the Internet of Things and Internet-connected refrigerators – fridges that tweet, fridges that suggest recipes, etc. Ryan Rusnak took that concept one stop further by strapping an air cannon to a to a mini-fridge and adding Internet control with an ioBridge module. Using an iPhone, Ryan’s creation allows someone to select a beer, aim the fridge, and shoot the beer across the room — a truly remarkable invention. And in addition, Ryan is able to monitor and control the temperature of the fridge to make sure his choice beers are staying cold.

Ryan released the beer cannon around New Years 2011, and since then, he has captured the imaginations of TV producers behind great shows on the Science Channel, Discovery, and The History Channel. The producers were creating a new series called, JUNKies for the Science Channel, where people turn junk into new things. They wanted to recreate Ryan’s mini-fridge beer cannon as part of one of the episodes. Hopefully, this episode will introduce the mainstream into Internet-control of things and inspire a whole new crop of innovations.

The “beer cannon” episode of JUNKies premieres on the Science Channel on September 8, 2011 at 10pm (EST). For more information about JUNKies, visit the Science Channel website.

Master tinkerer [Ryan Rusnak] created the very popular BEER ROBOT. With a press of button on Ryan’s iPhone, the mini fridge armed with an air cannon and webcam fires a beer at him with deadly accuracy. Ryan linked the controls to the iPhone using the ioBridge IO-204 module. So, in reality he could control his creation from anywhere in the world via the Internet. Less exciting and deadly are Ryan’s ability to remotely monitor and control the temperature of the refrigerator also via ioBridge.

The Mini Fridge Beer Robot is featured in Popular Science magazine in the June 2011 issue: Inventions of the Year. In this PopSci, you can learn how-to create your very own beer firing robot with a step-by-step guide. The beer robot, dubbed the ioFridge, is the perfect connection between man and machine! And, when we created ioBridge, you better believe we saw a future of armed machines that are web-enabled. Congrats on making PopSci and getting us one step closer…

The “personalbeerrobot” YouTube channel now has over 1.1 million views for Ryan Rusnak’s mini fridge beer robot project. It was definitely amazing to see this project being discussed on every media outlet over the past 30 days and recently in The Register and The Sun in the UK. Just think that over a million people heard “controlled with the ioBridge IO-204”!

And to top of the viral success of the project video, Ryan was asked to feature his iPhone controlled mini fridge live on The Graham Norton Show on BBC One. Here is the clip featuring Matt LeBlanc catching a beer being fired from the refrigerator.

Discovery Channel Canada also featured the project on its Daily Planet TV show. Talk about an internet of things…

Just in time for New Years, here’s a network-controlled mini fridge that shoots drinks at you that you select with an iPhone web app. The fridge is connected to the web app using an ioBridge IO-204, sends video clips to Twitter (@MyBeerRobot) , and has a web cam to aim the “50 psi” air cannon.

This is the maiden voyage of my mini fridge that now shoots beers via iPhone. It is controlled by an iobridge via a web based iPhone interface and shoots the beers from an air cannon in the housing. Special thanks to Graham Phero for air cannon construction and Josh Lilly for web and graphic development.

Features:

Vends 4 types of beer

Broadcasts temperature

Adjust temperature via iPhone

Aim via webcam

Auto tweet video per shot

Fire beer with 50psi of deliciousness

Mini Fridge Beer Cannon Close-up

Update:

We got a chance to talk with the inventor of the Mini Fridge Beer Robot and here are some more details.

The app is served from a NetBeans server and interfaces with the ioBridge Widget API to send the controls for selecting the beer, aiming / firing the air cannon, and setting the fridge temperature. The app also displays the fridge temperature.